Featured Book: Shadow on the Rose by Laura Jane Leigh

Marion is thrilled when she and her husband, James, buy a lovely, old mansion with a rose garden. After they move in, however, she falls ill and must stay at home to rest. Alone and depressed, she begins to have strange dreams which seem to take her back into the past. Although James is skeptical, Marion believes that when she sleeps, she is leading the life of a young Victorian woman, Mariana.

Mariana used to visit the house as a guest of her friend Rosamund, whose mother is thought to have drowned while rowing on the river with her husband. During her stays with the family, Mariana comes to suspect that the death was not an accident. She investigates, but meets with obstacles that prevent her from finding the full truth.

Eighty years later, Marion takes up the search. The scene shifts back and forth from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, as her discoveries push forward those of her Victorian alter ego. The latter, after she accuses someone of murder, is never entirely free from doubt: she thinks she may have persecuted an innocent person. By determining what really happened, Marion thinks she can drive away the guilt that has been hovering about the house like a ghost. What she fails to see is that her obsession is damaging her relationship with James. If she’s not careful, she’ll destroy her marriage and her future happiness.
Note: Canadian spelling is used throughout.